Ronchamp | |
|---|---|
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Location of Ronchamp  | |
  Ronchamp  Ronchamp | |
| Coordinates:47°42′03″N6°38′02″E / 47.7008°N 6.6339°E /47.7008; 6.6339 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Bourgogne-Franche-Comté |
| Department | Haute-Saône |
| Arrondissement | Lure |
| Canton | Lure-1 |
| Intercommunality | Rahin et Chérimont |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Benoît Cornu[1] |
Area 1 | 23.54 km2 (9.09 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 2,745 |
| • Density | 120/km2 (300/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 70451 /70250 |
| Elevation | 320–790 m (1,050–2,590 ft) (avg. 353 m or 1,158 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Ronchamp (French pronunciation:[ʁɔ̃ʃɑ̃]) is acommune in theHaute-Saônedepartment in theregion ofBourgogne-Franche-Comté in easternFrance.
It is located between theVosges and theJura mountains.
Mining began in Ronchamp in the mid-18th century and had developed into a full industry by the late 19th century, employing 1500 people. The museum looks back at the miners' work, the techniques and tools they used, and their social life. A collection of miners' lamps is also on display.
The chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, designed byLe Corbusier, is located in Ronchamp.It is a shrine for the Catholic Church at Ronchamp and was built for a reformist Church looking to continue its relevancy. Warning against decadence, reformers within the Church looked to renew its spirit by embracing modern art and architecture as representative concepts.Marie-Alain Couturier, who would also sponsor Le Corbusier for the La Tourette commission, steered the unorthodox project to completion in 1954.
This work, like several others in Le Corbusier’s late oeuvre, departs from his principles ofstandardization and themachine aesthetic outlined inVers une architecture. In this project, the structural design of the roof was inspired by the engineering ofairfoils. It also resembles a nun'scoif.
The chapel is clearly a site-specific response. By Le Corbusier’s own admission, it was the site that provided an irresistiblegenius loci for the response, with the horizon visible on all four sides of the hill and its historical legacy for centuries as a place of worship.
This historical legacy weaved in different layers into the terrain — from theRomans andsun-worshippers before them, to a cult of theVirgin in the Middle Ages, right through to the modern church and the fight against theGerman occupation. Le Corbusier also sensed a sacral relationship of the hill with its surroundings, the Jura mountains in the distance and the hill itself, dominating the landscape.
The nature of the site would result in an architectural ensemble that has many similitudes with theAcropolis, starting from the ascent at the bottom of the hill to architectural and landscape events along the way, before finally terminating at thesanctum sanctorum itself, the chapel.
The building itself is a comparatively small structure enclosed by thick walls, with the upturned roof supported on columns embedded within the walls. In the interior, the spaces left between the wall and roof, as well as asymmetric light from the wall openings serve to further reinforce the sacral nature of the space and buttress the relationship of the building with its surroundings.
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 3,058 | — |
| 1975 | 3,087 | +0.13% |
| 1982 | 3,132 | +0.21% |
| 1990 | 3,088 | −0.18% |
| 1999 | 2,965 | −0.45% |
| 2007 | 2,901 | −0.27% |
| 2012 | 2,930 | +0.20% |
| 2017 | 2,757 | −1.21% |
| Source: INSEE[3] | ||
